War Against Pakistan: Attacks on Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Kohat

Posted on October 15, 2009
Filed Under >Owais Mughal, Disasters
50 Comments
Total Views: 39281

Owais Mughal
As of right now, time is 8:31 p.m CST and following are the first 4 out of 6 headlines on front page of Pakistan’s largest English daily.

(1) Lahore: Spate of attacks leaves 27 dead, 30 injured.
(2) Quetta: Two injured in grenade attack
(3) Peshawar: Huge blast strikes, several injured
(4) Kohat: Eleven killed in suicide attack

What has World come up to? What has happened to my dear Pakistan where I used to roam care free? I can also wirte a long ‘jazbaati’ post but words have lost meanings in these numbing times. The truth is that I am also out of words to express myself to any more superlatives of anguish and sorrow. The same sad story has been written and discussed several times at ATP pages in past 2 years. It is also a reason that it took me several hours to finally come around and write this post. Very naively I was hoping for all bad news to somehow go away so I don’t have to write this. How childish of me.

We want peace. I want peace.

tum apne aqeedoN ke nezay, har dil mein utaare jaate ho
ham log mohabbat waale hain, tum khanjar kiyooN lehraate ho
is shehr meiN naghme behnay do
is shehr meiN hum ko rehnay do
ham paalun-har haiN phooloN ke, hum khushboo ke rakh-waale haiN
tum kis ka lahoo peene aaye, hum pyar sikhaane waale haiN

Ahmed Faraz

50 responses to “War Against Pakistan: Attacks on Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Kohat”

  1. shakeel says:

    The operation for Wazirizstan has been given the go ahead!

    Now, it’s make or break time for Pakistan.

    Brace yourself guys.

  2. A Pakistani says:

    @Krishnan KV

    Thanks man! for the story and I certainly wish you well too

    A Pakistani

  3. Krishnan KV says:

    @Murtuza S,

    You are a Pakistani on a Pakistan blog, and I am a visiting Indian, so I won’t try to shout you down (however much I think you deserve it).

    I just want to share with you a vignette from Bangalore, where I grew up. There was a group of us: me, Suhail, Vivek, Vincent, and Zaid. After college we sat around and talked cricket, philosophy, life. Zaid took me to a mosque once and taught me how to wash my hands and feet, and giggled softly at me as I knelt forward to pray (cluelessly, but sincerely), out of timing with my countrymen in the mosque. It was an enriching experience that I am proud to have had. We celebrated Eid at Suhail’s house annually. ALL of us. At Vivek’s wedding, Vincent, Zaid and I ate so much jamoon and ice cream that we all vomited the next morning. And yes, I’m sure all the silly dancing contributed to turning our stomachs upside down.

    You see, my grandfather taught me to appreciate the religious texts that were not my own. He owned a copy of the Quran and told me that it enlightened him. He asked me to read it. But he always considered himself a devout Hindu and a proud citizen of a secular country, however fragile that secularism sometime seemed.

    We too have been threatened by radicals in our country. RSS, Shiv Sena, and all sorts of their trident-pointing hypermoralizing ilk gained in popularity for a while. I detest them and still do. Ironically they sound just like you… just change the color from saffron to green.

    Anyway, we in India– millions of us Hindus included– eventually got wise, voted the BJP out, and kept them out. They don’t run around in chariots so much anymore. When Hindu fanatics beat up young women (happened in Mangalore), we banded together and mass-mailed them pink panties (google pink chaddi campaign).

    My point is this: I, a Hindu, have learned of the beauty of Islam from my ordinary Indian Muslim brothers and sisters who took me into their homes and mosques, attended my religious ceremonies, and YES, danced silly with me. This is an Islam of peace, of laughter and joy– of LIFE. No offence, but I don’t need to travel to South Waziristan to learn about Islam from the likes of you.

    I wish the very best to those majority-millions of Pakistanis who love peace, life, art, joy– and who are much closer to my friends Zaid and Suhail than they are to you. May your country see peace, and soon.

  4. Annonymous says:

    A simple antidote of the Taliban venom. Attack what motivates them. Every street, every wall, every billboard, adorn with sayings of the Holy Prophet and Holy Quran denouncing the Taliban ideology. For example, ‘He who kills one human will kill all humanity.’

    If the Taliban are waging ‘Jehad’, strike at their belief, sow the seeds of doubt, and even if one bomber hesitates, one attack averted, the effort will be worth it.

    And offer amnesty to those who turn state witness.

    And radio-tag any Taliban you catch, then let them go, they will lead you to their bosses.

  5. Aamir Ali says:

    @A soul in exile

    Pakistan never sent any Taliban to Kashmir, and this is the Pakistani Taliban, an independently formed group which is supplied with money, weapons and directions from abroad. Please take your gloating and false concern elsewhere.

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